Category: Opinion

A few years back I was looking for an apartment or some place to rent for a few months until I got married and we’d be able to move in together. Since I’d be living alone I had low standards. As long as it was decent, had internet connection and rent was cheap it was interesting to me. I eventually ended up at Sta. Rosa but at the time I was seriously thinking of Cubao. Yes Cubao. It might not be safe to be outside in the evenings and traffic often kept the place in a perpetual smog, but it was near Araneta, and I thought: wouldn’t it be great to be walking distance to where I could just come over over and watch concerts, and yes, the PBA?

Well believe it or not that dream turns out not too far from coming true. Check this out:

That humongous building is the unfortunately named ‘Arena’, in typical SM fashion, named in as blasé and unoriginal a manner as possible. These are after all the people who can’t be bothered to give their buildings creative names and so resort to calling them Bldg. A, Bldg. B etc.

OK I know this is late, but its better than kicking myself for not writing about the Finals when I had the chance, so here goes:

Disappointing

Mind you I’m not disappointed at the season, nor the league. I’m only particularly disappointed at FEU for coming over half – ready to face ADMU. Clearly ADMU had always been the superior team. It’s almost as if they’re the only ones who came to the party to dance, and when I say party I mean the whole season, not just the Finals, while everyone else just sat at the tables looking on. Knowing and accepting that, I still can’t believe that any UAAP team cannot at least give them a good fight in at least one game, maybe even steal one the way AdU did.

ADMU demolished FEU from the 2nd quarter onwards, and from thereon FEU just seemed to accept their fate. I can’t accept that. I don’t believe it isn’t possible to put up some sort of fight, some sort of run sparked by good defense and maybe bunch up a series of points to get it going. It just doesn’t compute. In fact it makes me a little angry to be honest. That wasn’t basketball. That was giving up.

What I Hope People Take From This

Winning and doing so on a consistent basis means only one thing. That ADMU has the best College basketball program in the UAAP. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are the best school, or the best fans, or are more favored by God or whatever. It just only means they have the best basketball program in the country.Continue reading “UAAP Season 74 Thoughts”

You see comments like these on the ‘net all the time, and for the most part its harmless, right? I mean it’s just some idiot ranting on and besides, he’s entitled to that. If he feels that way, after much thorough research and study I’m sure, then that’s that.

Then I read Chris Tiu’s blog the other day, re the time they played the NBA Selection a few weeks ago:

I have a theory: I think society has so much pent up anger it’s itching to find anything or anyone to vent towards. And yes I’m building up to the way people hate Miami so much, and James in particular.

Waiter Rant, a wonderful blog by a waiter I had been following for years, puts it very well when he says that 80% of people he serves are normal, but 20% are ‘socially maladjusted psychopaths’ (as if psychopath isn’t enough).

Sometimes I think that all those Heat and James haters are that 20%. Think about it. You are aching to vent your deep seated, directionless anger and here comes along an athlete of such incredible talent it’s impossible to ignore him. Plus he happens to look arrogant, or in the vernacular for better effect ‘astang mayabang‘. Clearly he’s no good.

The fact that he’s a celebrity and therefore ‘out of reach’ gives haters an extra cushion of assurance that whenever they speak ill of him it doesn’t matter as he’s fantastically rich and therefore couldn’t care what we small people think. And finally add the fact that even less of society can recognize a good basketball game or player and you have all the elements needed to be hated.

Of course, you don’t even need to be that level to be hated. You just have to be anonymous, hence the hate, arrogance and stupidity that waiters, call center agents and other people in the service industry have to endure on a daily basis. And you don’t even have to be an athlete either, as Justin Beiber knows very well. You just have to be out there, forced to be polite to everyone because society and personal upbringing dictates it, but getting little love in return because you are famous and therefore ‘deserve it’.

The last thing I want to write about is the personal lives of players, and particularly anyone dating / having anything to do with the Kardashians, who are the personification of the words ‘publicity hound’. So no way was this latest announcement of Kim Kardashian’s recent engagement to Kris Humphries going to end up here, until I saw this picture of him accompanying the announcement:

Dennis Rodman is probably my most discussed athlete on this blog. Reason being is that he is my idol, plain and simple. A decade plus ago while everyone was going crazy about Jordan, Kobe and the like, I believed in The Worm. I didn’t really understand why at the start, but his individuality and his constant need to go against the grain appealed very much to me at the time when I was searching for my own personality.

I had the terrific luck of tuning into a game which turned out to be amazing. Don’t you just love it when that happens? Especially in light of the fact that (just like everyone else) I haven’t been able to watch as many games as I purportedly should. Purportedly because, like a friend said, I call myself a ‘basketball blogger’. Sheesh, guilty!

So anyway, that’s Ron ‘makes you sit on the edge of your seat when he’s interviewed’ Artest kissing his biceps after a thunderous left handed dunk following a key steal that signalled the start of the end of Phoenix in the 3rd OT.

Today I will pretend to care about the PBA a little bit: SMB and Air21 recently exchanged key players, which is fine and didn’t really impress upon me at all until I read that in order for a trade to go through in the PBA, it’d have to pass the OK of the commissioner, at which point suddenly I am piqued.

But first, the official statements, starting with SMB Coach Ato Agustin, reading like it was written by Ato Agustin:

This is the right time to rebuild the San Miguel Beer Team. So with this in mind, the trade with Air 21 Express will be the important first step for us to ensure the continuing success of the San Miguel Beer franchise. Although this trade will not be a quick fix for the team, we believe that Rabeh Al Hussaini, Nonoy Baclao and RJ Guevarra will slowly but surely be molded into the San Miguel system. It will be very hard and with a heavy heart for us to part ways with Danny Seigle, Dorian Pena, Dondon Hontiveros and Paul Artadi, who have contributed immensely to our previous championships. But this sacrifice will not only benefit San Miguel and Air 21 but also their respective careers.

Yesterday I approached a ‘Chapters & Pages’ outlet at Robinson’s Manila (one of those small free standing 2nd hand book stores), thinking of getting a new book as I had already finished with ‘The Book Of Basketball – The NBA According To The Sports Guy‘, which I talked about here. Being low on funds I was hoping to get something cheap yet interesting that’d help at the bedroom for when I can’t sleep (ok that didn’t sound right but you get the point).

Anyway, ten minutes later I was walking out of there P720.00 lighter, way way beyond budget. Here’s what I got:

Amazon has few reader reviews of this book, but the Editorial reviews are correct when they say how most of it is about Coach George Karl and when they came close in 93-94 with a best season ever 63-19 record, only to be downed by the Denver Nuggets. Remember that image of Dikembe on NBA Classics where he’s lying on the court laughing / crying holding a basketball up in the air with both hands? That’s the one.